Naous Poseidous 2

At the time of 5th century BC, life was quite primitive in terms of physical entities. Yet, the glamour of their civilizations glittered in the dark sky at various parts of the earth, shinning down on mortal being like us. Such unparalleled glory is way beyond our reach, only to look up, admiring with great respect, with awe.

Approaching the pillars, quite a number of them, all transcended from the time when people of great wisdom lived, taught, and left behind philosophy of all time and for all mankind.
The many inscription on the pillars drew my interest. Looking closer, I noticed they were names of earlier visitors. These were the admirers of Greek ancient civilization, who came from various parts of the world. I had the urge of curving mine on one and you know….. many centuries later someone may notice and mentioned about me! LOL:lol:  (forgive me….). No, I won’t. This would amount to destroying the legacy of a great civilization. And the guard on duty was having a watchful eye on anyone that showed sign of going beyond the rope surrounding the place anyway.

But wait, didn’t I read somewhere about a name on the pillar……….. Yes, he should had been here, hundreds of years ago, because he was another admirer of Greek civilization, and he even died for Greece. This place, Naous Poseidous! How could I forget about this?! Hurriedly I scanned for the name. Too many, too small to be seen clearly. Forgive me Greece, I had to. I would considered it a visit incomplete if I had not witnessed his name on this pillar. With a trick and cooperation of friends, I managed to get nearer to the pillars. After a quick search in vain, I decided to try my luck at one with most curving on it. No easy task but I was determined.

To my pleasant surprise, I found it!!!!  Right at the bottom. A hand inscribed name of “ Byron” . This must be him, George Gordon Byron , the famous British poet who wrote “Don Juan” and other great poems. I consider him, beside his great poetic works, a man of integrity and noble personality. He was a person who stood up for justice, in words and in action. Among his noble works, was his devotion to fight for Greece when the it was threaten by the Turkey( Ottoman?) invasion. This man sold a large portion of his own fortune( from a comfortable noble class life in England), and organized his own army/fleet to help Greece in the battle, in the name of protecting the sovereign autonomy of Greece.

I believed his love for Greek civilization was another element that inspired his devotion for Greece. In his work ”Don Juan”, was a Greek man grieving for the downfall of his glamorous nation, singing and strumming a musical instrument. The poem would instill deep sadness into anyone who studied it. Lord Byron must had looked upon himself as a strumming guitarist, lonely and solemnly he came to pay respect at this awesome ocean site, left his name here.

About 90 over years ago, another great scholar of China translated the grieving passage in Don Juan, into a Chinese poem. He wrote “For Greece I felt immense sorrow, and for Greece I wept deeply! “( forgive my poor translation.) This was actually cross comparison of different cultures of mankind. Although they were separated by centuries of time and space, these scholars had common view of their times.

 A great civilization is not to be assessed by means of the political might of the nation. Greece had contributed mightily to mankind. Positioning its culture alongside the narrow mindedness of the contemporary politic not only had downgraded the great culture of mankind, but also of mankind ourselves .

A satisfactory day! Time to go to the nearest town, hopefully to get a good resting place, and to email the record of my traveling.